A student-led decolonisation conference
On Tuesday 17 June 2025, the Faculty of Education hosted Whose Knowledge Is It? – a student-led decolonisation conference organised by a group of postgraduate researchers committed to interrogating knowledge hierarchies and colonial legacies within academic institutions.
Maryam Bham, PhD candidate and Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum member, initiated this as her Championship event in partnership with the Faculty of Education where she is based. She reports:
This full-day event brought together students, educators, researchers, and organisers to explore critical questions:
- Whose knowledge is centred in education?
- Whose stories are silenced?
- What does it mean to decolonise knowledge?
- How do we begin to dismantle the hierarchies that shape what is considered valid or true and unlearn the norms imposed by colonialism?
Within five hours of opening registration, the event was fully booked, with a waiting list active on the day, highlighting the need for such reflective, critical spaces within the university.
Highlights
Departing from the conventional keynote model, the conference opened with testimonios — a form of collective truth-telling rooted in Latin American traditions of resistance and lived experience. This practice centres embodied knowledge and memory as powerful sources of truth and transformation, disrupting academic hierarchies around who gets to speak and be heard.
Four of the student organisers opened the day by sharing their own testimonios, reflecting on the personal and political complexities of decolonial scholarship:
- Sahar ElAsad explored the politics of language and identity through Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North, reflecting on her experience as a scholar in Cambridge.
- Maryam Bham spoke about her father as the first decolonial thinker she knew and shared her poem Keeping Term, exploring themes of naming, memory, and belonging in Cambridge.
- Gamze Inan challenged the neutrality of mathematics, advocating for critical maths education that humanises rather than dehumanises.
- Riya Kartha critiqued the tokenistic expectations often placed on scholars from the Global South and closed with a quote from Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda on the importance of whole, interconnected knowledge.
These testimonios set the tone for the day, reminding participants that decolonial work is not just intellectual, but inherently personal, political, and relational.
Overview
The day continued with two panels and a workshop featuring a range of scholars and practitioners, exploring both theoretical and applied dimensions of decolonial work.
Panel 1: Theoretical frameworks and decolonial epistemologies
Speakers explored the conceptual and philosophical foundations of decoloniality:
- Ali Meghji – What do we owe to theory? Acknowledging the anticolonial roots of sociological theorizing
- Isabelle Higgins – Decoloniality, embodied positionalities and the context and economies of higher education
- Gareth A Brinkworth – The epistemological foundations of modern education: from recognition to resistance
- Saleem Badat – Decolonising knowledge and research: epistemic, epistemological and strategic issues
This panel unpacked the philosophical and historical dimensions of decoloniality, addressing how institutional structures shape and sustain relations of power and knowledge.
Panel 2: Practical and applied decolonial work
Speakers highlighted practical strategies in research and pedagogy:
- Dita N Love – Would you die for a vocation? Healing justice at the crossroads of community and academia
- Dunya Habash – Launching the How Islamic is my school? Toolkit: a decolonial intervention in Muslim schooling
- Marie-Ange C Camara – Research made wholesome: the case of the Nouchiverse (pronounced “noosheeverse”)
- Jenson Deokiesingh – Pain and praxis: re-membering us in the field of Applied Linguistics
The panel foregrounded healing, joy, and resistance as central to decolonial practice. The sessions were chaired by Linh S Nguyễn and Irum Maqbool, whose generous facilitation shaped thoughtful, grounded discussion.
Workshop: Decolonising Palestine and disrupting colonial myths
In the afternoon, Aimee Shalan and Sarona Bedwan from Makan led a powerful session on critically unpacking colonial myths, offering practical tools for centring Palestinian knowledge and resistance in educational spaces.
The event closed with a Speed Knowledge Exchange, where attendees shared their own research and reflections, affirming the richness of insight that emerges when space is made for plural, embodied, and often marginalised knowledges.
Participant reflections
Attendees cited a range of motivations for attending, including:
- Deepening understanding of decolonial research
- Sharing and receiving feedback on their own research
- Connecting with like-minded educators and researchers
In feedback, participants described the event as “moving”, “thought-provoking”, and “beautifully held”. Testimonios, the opening reflections, and the practical insights from the panels and from the Makan workshop were received with great emotional and intellectual engagement.
One attendee reflected:
“The themes of embodied research were really interesting and useful. What are we doing with the power we have from the university? Who does our work speak to? What is it materially changing inside and outside of us?”
Looking forward
To honour the conference’s commitment to memory and relationality, attendees were invited to contribute a recipe from their home, family, or culture to a shared community archive. This gesture recognised that knowledge is not only produced through research and theory, but also lived, passed on, and nourished through everyday practices.
Each participant was also given a seed bookmark as a simple yet intentional offering. It was chosen to reflect the values at the heart of the conference, including connection to land, care, and the long-term work of tending to ideas, communities, and futures. Like decolonial work, seeds require patience, attention, and an understanding of how we are held in relation to others and the earth.
While the event benefited from institutional support, organisers acknowledged the contradictions of working within systems that continue to uphold colonial and imperial power structures. As such, Whose Knowledge Is It? was framed not as a one-off initiative, but as part of a broader, ongoing commitment to material change and epistemic justice.
We extend our greatest thanks to all who spoke, facilitated, participated, or supported the event. The conversations and connections formed throughout the day reminded us of what becomes possible when critique, care, and collectivity are centred.
Whose Knowledge Is It? was initiated and led by Maryam Bham. A small team of postgraduate researchers supported the organisation of the event.
What is a Research Forum Champion?
The Cambridge Interfaith Research Forum was established to enable greater connectivity between Cambridge scholars who take religion seriously, whatever their base at the University. Champions undertake to make relevant events known to academics in their immediate domain (faculty, department, or other Cambridge institution).
Once per year, Champions can access a small grant to support an event that increases the visibility of relevant scholarship and engagement.